The present invention relates to a moveable deck in the interior of a railroad freight car for carrying motor vehicles on multiple levels.
Railroad freight cars have long been used for transporting newly manufactured automobiles long distances from a point of manufacture or a point of arrival to cities where dealerships are located or where the automobiles are reloaded onto trucks for moving the automobiles over highways to the locations of dealerships. In order for such railroad cars to be most economical, it is desirable that they carry a maximum number of motor vehicles but it is also desirable that the freight cars be able to carry several different types of motor vehicles on each car and be able to reconfigure the railroad freight car to carry such different types of vehicles without undue difficulty.
It is known to adjust load carrying decks in motor vehicle carrying railroad cars to facilitate carrying different types of motor vehicles but provisions for making such adjustments in the past have been difficult.
A solution to this problem is shown in the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,335 entitled Railroad Freight Car for Carrying Motor Vehicles, the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference. The '335 patent, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention, discloses a multi-unit railroad freight car for carrying motor vehicles on multiple levels. This is accomplished by providing a plurality of motor vehicle decks spaced apart inside the car wherein the decks are adjustable in height.
The endmost middle level deck in each unit is mounted on a pivot axis at one end so that the other end may be raised and lowered to facilitate the loading and unloading of vehicles on the next lowest deck. A cable and winch system is used to raise and lower the hinged portion of the deck. When a manually operated cable system used to raise and lower the deck, the entire weight of the deck is borne by the cable and winch. The deck is heavy and some operators may have difficulty raising and lowering it with only a mechanical crank. In addition, because of the weight it may be difficult for the operator to tell when the deck is fully raised.